Local Marketing Vault Review – Is James Bonadies a Scam?

Welcome to my Local Marketing Vault review. Is this a legitimate opportunity for creating a long-lasting and sustainable income stream or is James Bonadies a scam?

Here’s what you need to know. This is a training program that can supposedly teach you valuable skills that are in demand right now, such as lead generation for local businesses.

The course has been around for a few years and has amassed a lot of attention. James Bonadies and Jason McKim have created a community of entrepreneurs and business owners.

However, not everyone has achieved success with this model. In fact, most people probably didn’t.

That’s why, you should know exactly what you’re getting into without any hype or exaggerated income claims.

Ready? Let’s get started…

Local Marketing Vault Review Summary

Product Name: Local Marketing Vault

Product Type: Lead Generation For Local Businesses

Product Creators: James Bonadies and Jason McKim

Product Price: $3,000+

Overall Score: 30/100

Recommended: No!

Summary: Local Marketing Vault is a training program created by James Bonadies and Jason McKim. It can teach you how to create an online business that revolves around generating leads and clients for other businesses (mainly offline brick-and-mortar).

This is also known as local lead generation.

The idea behind this business model is simple. Most people already realize the true potential that having an online presence can do for them in terms of an increase in sales, and overall profits.

More often than not, these business owners have their hands full already, that’s why they will gladly outsource this kind of work.

That’s where you come in, present your services as a local lead generation expert, and offer to help them get more exposure and more traffic.

The idea is this. You create simple websites and rank them on the search engines for specific local search terms. Then, you rent these websites to local business owners.

When someone in that area looks up something related to that business, they will see your client. This, in turn, will lead to more clients and sales for your client.

It’s a B2B (business-to-business) model.

You will have to do constant cold outreach to prospects, which means that, more often than not, you will get rejected.

You have to push yourself to keep going, even if you don’t acquire any new clients for a long time. More than half of your job will be to reach out to businesses and pitch your services.

In other words, facing rejection should be something that you come across daily, or you’re basically not doing it right.

If you are someone who takes offense easily, or you can’t perform well under pressure, then it is probably not for you.

See below for a cost-effective alternative that won’t have you doing cold outreach and find out why it’s my favorite program.

What is Local Marketing Vault?

Local Marketing Vault is a training program that can teach aspiring entrepreneurs how to obtain the skills needed for landing offline business owners as clients and increasing their overall profits by providing them with more leads and sales. There are similar programs out there such as Job Killing. 

Lead generation is a skill that EVERY business owner needs, be it online or offline, so this is definitely a business model that is currently in demand, and it will stay that way for a long time.

Most business owners are aware that having a good online presence can be beneficial. 

However, they also get a lot of pitches from competitors that are doing the exact same thing.

If you don’t have a solid portfolio to PROVE you know what you’re doing, odds are that your prospects will pick your competitors over you.

Is Local Marketing Vault a Scam?

Local Marketing Vault is not a scam. It’s a legit training program that will show you a real business model.

According to the owners of Local Marketing Vault, the system is suitable for beginners with no experience in lead generation or making money online. It’s also good for people who are already in this business and are looking to scale and grow.

You can also learn a ton of info completely free on YouTube or Google.

Especially if you are a beginner and you don’t know if this particular business model is for you or not until you try it. In this case, trying it out can cost you thousands of dollars.

Even if you try and do everything right, you may still end up giving up or failing. This user paid $4,500 for the program and was promised to make the cost of the course back in 90 days.

After 4 months and reaching out to hundreds of potential clients with ZERO results, they canceled their membership and gave up.

If you prefer to avoid risking that much time and money see this below.

Is Local Marketing Vault BBB Accredited?

Local Marketing Vault is BBB accredited, and you can for yourself here. This company is originally called Visibility Cloud but it’s doing business as Local Marketing Vault.

There is only one complaint on the BBB website and it was closed a few years ago.

Who are James Bonadies and Jason McKim

James Bonadies is the founder of Local Marketing Vault alongside Jason McKim. Both of these guys are experienced, digital marketers.

Before getting into making money online, James Bonadies was a teacher, that had struggles with paying the bills.

After years of searching, exploring, and learning, he finally cracked the code to making money online. In 2014 he started his own digital marketing agency, and soon after that, he hit the 7 figure mark.

Jason Mckim tried to make this online thing work for him for years until he finally gave up and took on a corporate job as a financial consultant, relying solely on commissions from the clients that he took on board.

After a few big sales, he realized that this was it, as he was no longer able to land any more sales. That’s when he started digging into internet marketing.

He managed to learn a bit about search engine optimization (SEO), and that’s when he took on a job with this digital company, where he did all the marketing for them. 

He got good at SEO and paid ads, and that’s when he started pulling additional clients and claiming them as his own, on the side. Shortly after that, he realized that most businesses rather pay someone to take care of all their marketing than do it themselves.

When James Bonadies and Jason McKim met, they were already equipped with the skills needed to create something valuable to people, and that’s how the Local Marketing Vault came to life.

Is James Bonadies a Scam Artist?

While James Bonadies is not a scam artist, not everyone is going to benefit from what he and his co-owner have to offer in their Local Marketing Vault course

He is one of the few legit business owners who truly know what they’re talking about when it comes to making money online and lead generation for local businesses. 

Inside his training course, people can learn how to become successful with this business model and learn some skills that are in demand right now. 

James Bonadies is not a scam artist, but you need to know what’s inside his training course before you even think about joining.

What’s Inside Local Marketing Vault?

There are approximately 24 modules inside the Local Marketing Vault. Let’s do a breakdown on each one, to see what they are all about.

Module 1 – Getting Started

The first module is all about introducing you to everything inside the Local Marketing Vault. You will learn how to navigate inside the platform, where to go if you need to ask questions and things like that. 

By the time you’re done with the first module, you will know exactly what’s inside this program, and how to go about locating everything that you need.

Module 2 – Getting Clients 

The second module is all about getting clients, cold calling prospects, and getting acclimated to being rejected on a consistent basis.

Naturally, as you reach out to more people and offer them your services, not everyone is going to be on board. In fact, MOST people will say no to you, and that’s perfectly fine.

You will learn how to reach out to people via email, and get access to a checklist that will help you track your progress.

Module 3 – The Vault Mindset

It’s important that you adopt a certain mindset in order to become successful with this particular business model, as it can be stressful at times.

Odds are that if you’ve never dealt with anything similar before, then you will find it challenging at first. As you progress and advance further it’s going to become easier, but it will take some time.

That’s why you need to adjust your mindset so that you can be able to withstand the test of time, and do not give up. Inside this module, you will learn things like how to practice patience, get introduced to the “winning formula” and more.

Module 4 – Vault Marketing Strategy Training

The strategy is simple, and it’s called the value ladder. Here’s an example of what that looks like.

If you offer your potential clients something for free that can give them value, and slowly walk your way to more lucrative (and expensive) offers, they will naturally be more inclined to work with you and pay for your services.

If I were to offer you (a complete stranger) something that costs a thousand bucks, how likely are you to trust me with that kind of money?

Odds are that you won’t. But if I were to offer you something completely free of charge, that can benefit you in a way, we would build some kind of a connection, right?

Now when you know that I can be of valuable service to you, because I’ve proven myself, you will be way more comfortable with giving away more money, for more advanced services. That makes sense, right?

Module 5 – Vault Services Training

This is where you will learn the exact services that you will be offering your clients. With Local Marketing Vault, you will learn how to bring in more leads, conversions, and sales to your clients.

There are many different ways that you can do that, and by being able to specify exactly how you intend to do that, your potential clients will have a better understanding of what exactly you can do for them.

Inside this module, you will get things like an overview of reputation management, lead generation, SEO, Google My Business listings, video marketing, and more.

Module 6 – Vault Sales Strategy Training

If you are not good at sales, then how do you expect to land more clients, and earn profits from that? It’s virtually impossible to do this business model successfully without being good at sales.

This is what the sixth module is all about. By the time you’re done here, you will know how to close sales with clients, how to identify the type of clients that you want to work with, and more.

This training module also covers essential things like how to effectively take payments from clients, and how to offer them additional ways that they can take advantage of your services.

Module 7 – Building Your Agency

Here’s the thing. Running your own digital marketing agency is hard work, and it requires time to become good at it. Anyone who’s promising you fast and easy money is just feeding into your inner greed, and this applies to any industry online.

If you don’t have a good reason as to why you are doing what you are, odds are that you will give up before you get anywhere near your goals. That’s why most people end up failing in the first place.

Furthermore, you will learn things like establishing routines, planning out your prices, offering other marketing services to increase your profit potential, and more.

Module 8 – Done For You Value Ladder

You remember the Value Ladder in module four, right? You will learn how to replicate the exact strategies that James and Jason are using in their Local Marketing Vault training program. This is for anyone that doesn’t know exactly where to start, and how to approach this the right way.

In this module, you will get a clear example of something called reputation management. What this means is that you will be offering your prospects a FREE report of how their brand is perceived online, and offer your services accordingly.

If they have bad reviews online, you point out the things they should do to change that. If they already have a good rep online, then you should offer them a way to keep their good ratings, and even increase them further. 

Module 9 – Funnel 101

You need to learn how sales funnels work, or you won’t have much luck with landing clients online. This is also the place where you will get introduced to ClickFunnels.

This is a platform created by Russell Brunson, and it’s all about successfully creating funnels.

Even if you don’t fully realize what they are yet, it’s irrelevant right now, because if you end up getting involved with Local Marketing Vault, then James Bonadies will explain everything in this part of his training course.

Module 10 – Funnel Automation Training

This is where you will learn how to automate your entire funnel sequence, in order to successfully create a series of well-crafted pages that your potential clients will go through. Each one is designed with one goal in mind.

You will also get introduced to autoresponders, which are email marketing tools that can help you automate and send thousands of emails to thousands of different people at the same time.

This is something that if you try to do alone, it’s going to take weeks or more until you’re done and too much of your precious time will go to waste.

Whether you realize it or not, autoresponders are paramount for your success, and so is email marketing.

Module 11 – Vault Software Training

This where you will get introduced to two more tools that will help you in your business. The first one is Called HOWDE, and it’s created by the Local Marketing Vault. The purpose of this software is to reach out to your leads numerous times, to increase your chances of a response.

It can do a bunch of things from sending emails on your behalf, leave automated voicemails, and can even send text messages. The second software is called TruReview. As the name suggests, it can help you generate reviews for your services.

It also lets you know whenever a bad review gets posted, so that you can take care of it. These are important things, as people get influenced by the reviews they see and take that into consideration when making the buy or not decision.

Module 12, 13 & 14- Facebook Ads, Google Ads & Messenger 101 Training

This is where you will learn everything about successfully running Facebook ads, creating campaigns, and everything else that you need.

In module 13 you will learn how to become good at messenger marketing, and you will be introduced to yet another external software called ManyChat.

This tool can help you create automated campaigns using Facebook Messenger. In module 14 you will learn how to run Google ads successfully, by getting introduced to things like keyword research, and the pay-per-click model.

Module 15 – Campaign Review

In this module, you will get access to a bunch of successful campaigns created by James Bonadies, Jason McKim, and their students. Each campaign video is about an hour-long, and you will learn a lot of resourceful things, that are currently working in today’s market.

Module 16 – Weekly Q & A Calls

This is where you can get access to all the weekly Q & A calls made by James Bonadies and Jason McKim, since the inception of Local Marketing Vault. If you end up missing any of the weekly calls, this is where you can get access to them.

Module 17, 18, 19 & 20 – Starter & Tier Campaigns

This is where you will get access to different campaigns, and funnels in various niche markets. Gym, spa, senior home care, and many others. The campaigns are divided into 3 tiers, starting from the more basic ones, and ending with all the targeted niches that you can tackle, making it that much easier to do the work YOUR clients have hired you to do. 

Module 21 – LMV Tech Concierge

This is the place, where you can ask for help with your campaigns or anything else related to your business. You will have a team of dedicated experts that will take care of all your needs. That’s to be expected, especially with the given HUGE price tag for getting access to Local Marketing Vault in the first place.

Module 22 – Advanced Gold VIP For Paid In Full Members Only

Since this is a training course that costs a ton of cash, naturally most people will end up paying for their membership in separate installments, which is where the VIP membership comes into play as an incentive to pay your course fees in full. You will get things like additional campaigns, secrets of the 1% club, and more.

Module 23 – The 10K Club 

This is a bonus incentive that’s being offered to any of the members of the Local Marketing Vault that ends up reaching $10K in sales or more a month. You will get some perks and extra things that only members of the $10K club can get.

Module 24 – Local Marketing Vault’s Partnership Program

This is where you can get partnered with other members of this platform. let’s say for the sake of this example that you are good at creating funnels, but lack the skills of cold calling, and you can’t close sales.

Well, you can get in touch with other students of this program who excel where you lack the skills and vice versa. This gives you the perfect opportunity to create partnerships and establish successful business relations.

Local Marketing Vault Price, Extra Costs, and Refund

There’s no fixed price for Local Marketing Vault, that’s why anyone interested in learning how much it costs, has to go through a pre-scheduled phone call with James Bonadies or one of his team members.

The price varies and depends on your particular business model and the level of expertise that you have. You shouldn’t expect to be asked for less than $3,000 but the price can go up to $7,000 or more. That’s for the training course and all the modules inside only.

If you want to use, for example, ClickFunnels, then you will have to pay either $97/Month for its limited version or $297/Month. Furthermore, if you want to get access to the Local Marketing Vault Accelerator, then you have to pay an additional $997.

This upsell is supposedly going to expedite the process that it takes to become profitable here. As for a refund, you are entitled to one, as long as it’s within 72 hours of your purchase as per their terms of service.

What I Like About Local Marketing Vault

1. Live Q & A Session and Personalised Support. Getting access to people who are already where you want to be is the right way to ensure your success with this business model or anything else for that matter.

That’s why the live Q&A session is the right way to go because it ensures that you can get all the support that you need.

That goes for the concierge services and the personalized support that you can get in addition to that. There’s also a Facebook group made for all members of Local Marketing Vault that can connect you with all the other members, and other like-minded people too.

What I Don’t Like About Local Marketing Vault

1. It’s Too Expensive. There’s just no training program or course that’s worth paying that much money, especially if you are a beginner. Apparently, Local Marketing Vault is great for beginners, but I beg the differ.

The way to find out if this business model is for you is by experimenting with it. The 3-day money-back guarantee is definitely not enough time to make an educated decision if this is for you or not.

If it’s not, then you’ve just made a mistake that cost you thousands of dollars. Tell me how is this beginner-friendly?

Consider the fact that you can get an abundance of FREE information online, and think about whether or not it’s really worth paying so much for information that can be accessed on the World Wide Web with a little bit of research.

2. The Strategies Being Taught Aren’t Effective Worldwide. If you are someone that is outside of the US or Canada, then what’s being taught inside can get you into trouble, since the rules and regulations are different for each individual country.

What’s allowed in the US is not the same as what you can do in the UK or Australia for example, which is why you can end up facing charges of breaching people’s privacy and things of that nature.

Do I Recommend Local Marketing Vault?

No, I don’t, and here’s why. The training inside and everything else being offered is great and all, but it’s just too expensive.

Is the risk of losing that much money for something that looks profitable worth it? I’m sure that there are people who are successful with Local Marketing Vault and love James Bonadies & Jason McKim’s training course, but there are people on the other side of the coin as well.

People who have paid thousands of dollars, only to end up being disappointed with what they’ve learned. In my opinion, the risk of losing that much money is just not worth it. Especially considering the fact that there are other, cost-effective alternatives that won’t leave people broke if it doesn’t work out for them. 

If you are interested in creating an online business for yourself but don’t want to spend that much, then you should see how these people are banking profits using a simple yet incredibly effective blueprint that so many neglect, and lose out on that opportunity forever.